


Pretty Girls (Not Lily Evans)

by IDoNotHaveACat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I Made Myself Cry, Lily has ugly girl trauma, She just does, thems the rules
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29001447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IDoNotHaveACat/pseuds/IDoNotHaveACat
Summary: Lily is never called beautiful. She has green, almond eyes and red hair. She's been called carrot-top, and ginge. James could have had a pretty girl, but he chose her.---headcannon; Lily is kind and smart because she has ugly girl trauma. she was a weird horse girl with second hand clothes, change my mind.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: James and Lily Fanfics





	Pretty Girls (Not Lily Evans)

Before she was Lily Potter, she was an Evans. She was an average girl, from the shitty end of town. Her best friend was her older sister. The only other friend she had was a boy with no one else to go to. Lily Evans was not a pretty girl.

Oh...she got along just fine. She did well in school, because it was easy to go and sit in the library, and hard to put up with the name-calling. Her eyes were vibrant green, but small and almond shaped. Her hair was long and thick, but frizzy and bright, bright orange. Freckles covered every inch of her skin, and in summer, her mum covered her with such a thick layer of suncream that it seemed to leave greasy fingerprints everywhere she went. Maybe that was why it was so easy to befriend the Snape boy. Severus had a girls haircut, and everyone at school said he had nits. He wore second-hand clothes 3 sizes too big, and he lived on the same council estate as Lily. Neither were good at football or braiding hair or playing pretend, so they spent hours on end together. Sev never said much- His Dad said that men didn't small talk--so Lily filled the silence with jokes and stories. Mostly, the stories seemed made up... Lily told him that she could make flowers bloom in the dead of winter, and frogs jump high into the air. Sev had thought she was being silly until...Lily showed him, and Lily was just like him. Just like him. Severus had thought himself a freak, until Lily. Lily had thought herself unlovable until Sev.

So they became inseparable, and a year later, when their letters came, they would be inseparable still. Lily and Sev. Carrot-top and Weirdo. 

On the platform, the scarlet engine in front of her, Lily felt like her whole life, she'd been waiting for this-- this was her beginning. This was the beginning of Severus' end.

About 20 minutes later, when some toff had tripped Sev and Lily called him a lout, and he decided to teach her a lesson--James Potter could have anyone he wanted, and she didn't get to tell him what to do.

Several hours later, when the hat called out "Gryffindor!" a second time, James took his chance, and she ignored him. James called her pretty, and she saw straight through it. James asked her out, and she shot him down. Lily had been asked out as a joke so many times. James Potter would not be the one to catch her out.

A year later, he'd asked her out six times, and proposed twice. The joke was wearing thin.

Seven years passed, and Lily learned magic and she was good at it. She was the first to hand in assignments, and the last to leave the classroom. She never beat Sev in Potions, and she never beat Potter in Transfiguration, but she was the best at Charms, and that was good enough for her. For the first time, she had Friends. Real Friends. Mary was a Muggleborn too, daughter of an immigrant, as studious as Lily and kinder by far, and the two girls bonded over corner shop sweets and homesickness. Marlene was gorgeous, the type of girl to bully Lily in primary school, but when the boys couldn't look her in the eye, Marls came to Lily, who set a record-- She once made a boy cry in less than three minutes with her sharp tongue (inherited from her sister, who had learned from the best; their mother could and would dress-down the queen if the opportunity presented itself). Lily had always liked the quiet ones, and took Remus under her wing. It was Remus who told her about the marauders; warning her to bring an umbrella when water balloons were involved, or to avoid the east wing on the seventh floor for one month in third year. It was Remus who always apologised for James, and it was Lily who always apologised for Sev. They were similar like that.

In fifth year, things started getting scary. People started whispering in corridors and travelling in groups. Lily didn't try to stop pranks anymore; they all needed something to laugh about. "I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!". When people called her ugly, she flushed as red as her hair and called them thick. When Sev called her a Mudblood, she went white as a sheet and ran away. Lily never ran away from her problems, but this time...this time was different.

Hours later, as she sat quietly in the common room, she heard Potter say, "I don't think she wants to talk right now." and Lily marvelled at the idea that he, of all people understood. For three days, Potter smiled at her gently, and fielded every question and pitiful glance, and Lily wondered if maybe it hadn't been a joke. If every time he had asked her to Hogsmeade had been genuine. If he had stuttered out of nerves and pea-cocked out of habit.

Slowly, she came around to the idea. It was one way to stick it to the bigots. She was a muggleborn witch who grew up on an estate. Her mum was a hairdresser, her Dad worked for a man named Clive, who's name was pretty much taboo in their house. James Potter was rich and handsome and pureblooded, and he liked her. Because she was funny and nice and all the things a good wizarding girl wasn't. And Snape hated him.

Maybe at first, Lily did it out of spite. She got to know a nice boy, who thought she hung the moon. Lily Evans found someone worth fighting for, who thought she was worth fighting for, and took a chance. She fell in love, and for 18 months, little Harry Potter had the happiest life anyone could wish for, with parents who loved each other

**Author's Note:**

> anyway...i super identify with this version of lily. Fancast Lily Potter can fight me. @pretty girls, I still love u, but this was bugging me all morning.


End file.
